Netflix teams with Chelsea Handler on talk show, specials

Chelsea Handler gets a talk show after all. Just not on late-night TV.

Netflix and Chelsea Handler are teaming for an on-demand talk show and series of standup specials, the internet streaming service announced Thursday.

The talk show will debut in 2016. The first hour-long standup show will debut Oct. 10, based on Chandler’s tour, “Uganda Be Kidding Me.”

The aim is to “reimagine the late night talk show for the on-demand generation, starting with the late-night part,” said Netflix boss Ted Sarandos.

The deal calls for four “docu-comedy specials” in 2015.
Handler is set to end her long-running “Chelsea Lately” series on E! in August. Per the Netflix release:

“If I was going to continue working in this industry, I knew I had to do something outside the box to keep myself interested. I wanted to sit with the cool kids at lunch so I approached Netflix to make sure they were as cool as I thought they were, and when I confirmed my suspicions, like with any other future lover, I made my move. I’m more excited than I’ve been in awhile, and the team at Netflix is the most forward thinking, alert group I’ve sat down with in ages. No offense to the Shahs Of Sunset,” said Chelsea.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.